Tall Buildings
Sitemap TALL BUILDING --- TOO TALL * See Also Construction --- --- --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . . . . Eight stories when seen close looks plenty Tall. In Raptures external views, we saw 60+ story tall buildings (count the rows of windows) off in the distance. Those might look good to an 'artist', but is needless in its expensive, wasteful and inconvenient excess, when much more practical shorter buildings only had to be placed closer to LOOM just as impressively. A cityscape of 'tall' 8 story buildings can be awesome in its own way (while the building we actually were inside of during the game were generally quite SQUAT, with limited multiple floors). The game artists had a limited and anecdotal idea of what real cityscapes are like. Their repeating the same scene over and over again made it even worse (Including many Skyboxes repeating same texture picture window view out opposite sides of buildings). Awesome HUGE NYC-like skyline ALSO conflicted with how rather small Rapture was supposed to be ( 20K-40K people) --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . . Racing to be the tallest. The Art Deco Chrysler Building was finished just before the Empire State Building surpassed it and then the 1929 Crash ended that competition. We were always in short Squat buildings when we were inside Rapture. You might've seen a view like THIS of one of the tall buildings next door/nearby (looking up and up, instead of mysteriously being at level halfway up distant too tall buildings, AND with seabed rocks laying about right outside the window). Actually, having 20 stories tops would be more than enough for 'Tall' buildings in Rapture. There generally was no need to build them even that tall. (Can you imagine walking the stairs after they stopped working when Rapture's Chaos began) --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . Look - Tall Buildings !!! Yes but then notice all the OTHER building which are mot very tall at all. A vast majority are 6 or fewer stories. Rapture would be the same : Some few TALL buildings built to impress (and at great expense) and then everything else only as tall as they need to be. 6 stories is also the practical height for not requiring Elevator(s). On The Surface, it is also low enough to be reached by Firetruck Ladders (limited since Roman days for a similar reason), and to be able to be constructed of Brick/Concrete and not require Steel Girders. In Rapture, the higher a building is in floors the more interior space has to be dedicated to its infrastructure - to sustain more and more occupants - stairs/elevators/ventilation/utilities/etc ... --- --- --- Rapture's Skyline - All Just A Con Job ???? : Rapture Was built to be impressive/inspiring, but is all that interior space really used ? http://www.game-archivist.com/rapture/img/museum/skyboxes/fullsize/Skybox_07_Ruined_Rapture.jpg That height of those sky-scrapers 40+ stories tall - is there interior spaces inside (particularly near the tops where they narrow down)? - or are many of those stories lighted 'fakes'? An example would be the towers on the main Fontaine Futuristics buildings, which the top 2/3 is more for show than any human occupation. As narrow as they are, the interior volume (inside the required massive walls) would quickly dwindle to uselessness. I would hope that only the densest part of Rapture looks like the following picture : - http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100305123055/bioshock/images/0/0e/Warnock_tvspot.png If those were fully occupied, 20000 people could fit pretty easily in just the buildings shown. Fake construction of the upper sections would not need the 8 foot thick reinforced concrete walls most inhabited buildings in Rapture have (or the foot thick Ryanium windows) to hold out the sea pressure. The fake windows could be relatively thin ordinary glass. The only real structural needs would be holding up the building's weight and preventing ocean currents from swaying/bending a building to its destruction. Faked floors (being empty/unused) could alleviate alot of the ocean current's force by having lots of holes to let much of the current flow pass right thru the building (think fly-swatter). Otherwise with such tall buildings the current force has a huge amount of leverage against the foundation (which has to anchor the building), and also has to be transmitted thru the walls of the lower levels (requiring them to be much stronger). As I've written before, there was a plentiful locally-made supply of concrete in Rapture, which could allow alot of overbuilding (and Wales Brother's grand designs definitely were that). Fake upper floors also could be designed to look like more than they really are (just as in game the buildings we see which are real 3D objects are actually 1/3rd size - yet look impressively bigger - an optical illusion). --- --- --- 'Why Should There Even Be Tall Buildings in Rapture - REALLY ??? (Other Than "It Looked Neat" for a Game) ' : In real life, water absorbs light within short distances (~600 feet and virtually all of Bright Sunlight diminishes and is gone - completely dark/pitch black). Any less intense light disappears at even shorter distances. SO you wouldn't see the City skyline off in the distance (as seen in many Skybox window views), and even adjacent building over 100 feet away quickly fading away (interior light from windows are just not that bright). And we have some 60+ story buildings shown which likely to be ~600 feet tall -- it would dim out further all along that distance, and you wouldn't even see the top of the building from its foot (just a rapid fade to blackness). Any intentional 'Make It Look like Skyscraper' faked rows of windows cosmetic/aesthetic effect (Art Deco was known for added 'Tower' decorations), would be rather pointless when virtually nobody can actually see it (thus noone would go to the expense). Tall thin buildings also are an impractical design for Rapture and its environment of extreme water pressure - short blocky buildings are structurally much more workable and cheaper and less wasteful (and it IS hardly the situation in the middle of a Real World city center where their limited real estate space forces 'tall' building upwards). A building built with a higher Volume to Surface-Area ratio is much better. Windows are not an asset (actually an expensive feature) and serve no use for ventilation. As mentioned above, they will generally have little to view. Look at the actual places we went to in Rapture, and you see interiors with very few 'walls of windows'. You also see sprawling floor layouts that only go up a few stories. No interior shown is even of the tall thin building 'type'. I would have had the buildings scaled down (in height and number of stories maxing at around 20), still "done for effect", but at least have them realistically be visible (and EVEN THEN still require powerful illumination for the shortened distances to 'stand out' in the darkness). Huge interior spaces (ie- big dome full of buildings) are also prohibitive, and many of medium size (like a stadium) would be sunk into the seabed to used the rock as part of their pressure holding structure (would still have the roof to support massively). --- --- --- --- --- . .